----> Investigate. If you succeed, find an Arkham Horror LCG Thread

Which expansions for Arkham Horror LCG would you recommend? Are there must-haves and don’t-buys? On BGG Return to the Night of the Zealot didn’t get much praise for example. What about the other expansions? I’m confused when I see all these packs and deluxe expansions.

There are three campaigns currently, one in progress and two finished. Pick the one that sounds most interesting, get the big box for that and then add the other scenarios in order as you need them or at once if you prefer. There are also three or four standalone scenarios. If you want maximum deck flexibility you want everything but it’s really more about the scenarios for this one.

I have a core set for this along with all the first big box and 2 side sets. It just isn’t clicking with me. I thought I’d offer it out here first before putting it up on Facebook Market.

Anyone want it? I’d sell the whole package for $100 and shipping.

If you’re like me, and you’ve been coveting that kind of awesome “Countless Terrors” playmat that never seems to be in stock anywhere…currently Cool Stuff Inc has a few in stock.

I need to jump back in and likely will with the Halloween season upon us, and this provides a perfect excuse!

Arise, o thread, from the dampening twilight…

So after spending a LOT of time this past week/weekend playing Elder Sign, I had a hankering for something a little deeper, and decided to get back to AH:LCG. For the life of me, though, I couldn’t remember exactly all the rules. It’s been since shortly before Christmas since I last played.

There are lots of let’s plays on Youtube that will give you a good refresher course…but I think I stumbled onto the best one that exists out there. Here’s them, playing the first OG Night of the Zealot campaign out of the box:

What’s great about this:

  1. the guy who’s kind of guiding things doesn’t overly quarterback things for the two new players, but knows the rules cold and answers questions and some strategy inquiries very well.

  2. Did I mention the rules? They know them. Or at least the guide does. A Let’s Play when you’re trying to grokk the rules where the people in the video are butchering the rules really stinks.

  3. Everyone’s having fun and playing and engaged. It’s something easy to miss, but a Let’s Play where there’s no demonstrable enthusiasm by the players or video producer/narrator is just a slog to get through. This feels like a really fun game group.

In short: I watched FFG’s own tutorial video, then watched this, and playing the first scenario in the Night Of The Zealot Revisited expansion felt like riding a bike. A bike with tentacles.

OK, since I had this discussion with a couple of buddies this week, it’s time for the Qt3 hive minde to weigh in.

Is Dunwich pronounced…

  1. As in the English style, such as the actual English town of Dunwich: Dunn-itch

  2. As it’s spelled, which happens with lots of English place names that come over to the US, which is where the fictional town of Dunwich is: Dunn-witch

What say you? (Hint: there’s apparently no right answer.)

#2, but I’m a simple man. 🙂

Totally Dunn-witch, if you ask me. Where the hills rise wild, they pronounce all them letters.

Yikes, until your post, it had never even occurred to me it might be #1.

And as for the Arkham Horror card game, I might talk a lot of trash about Fantasy Flight’s business model, but after mucking around with the digital version of the Lord of the Rings card game, I have a newfound appreciation for the design of the Arkham Horror card game. Lord of the Rings card game videogame version: uninstalled. Arkham Horror card game boxes: scouted and prepped for possible extraction.

-Tom

I was firmly a Dunn-witch guy my entire life…but then I learned about England place name pronunciations, and I’ve also read a number of fairly dull-ish bits of research for work that reference small -wich towns and villages in Britain that I’ve unconsciously pronounced in my head without the “w” sound.

And so now I find my brain in conflict – and headed to sanity checks – over this. :) But I think I’m a Dunnitch kind of guy now.

Though Nightgaunt – whose handle implies that he may know this forbidden knowledge – makes a good case for the “w”.

The word “witch” sounds way scarier than the word “itch”, so I’m all in for Dun-Witch instead of Dun-Itch.

-Tom

BTW, I have been known to pimp my Arkham Horror LCG a bit, at least with one of those Hobby Lobby artist cases with the insert to store and separate cards with. And I love having a nice stand-up Chaos Bag, and I can state enough how awesome (and inexpensive) an upgrade it is to use coin capsules on your chaos tokens.

But I’m also a big fan of play mats with an LCG, mostly because they help me to remember rules and stay organized. And so stumbled onto these last week, and I cannot recommend them highly enough:

It’s a mat for a single investigator, with nicely marked spaces for insanity, stamina, the spots for allies and equipment and a threat area even up top.

Best of all, they’re cheap at $15, and high quality stuff. I got two and it’s been a terrific addition to the game for me.

Gah, now you guys have me thinking about buying some of this game. I’d be playing two-player or solo games. Should I start with core set(s) plus the Dunwich expansion, or is the core set(s) alone enough to try out the game?

@triggercut , thanks for that link. That mat seems to come with sleeves, too. Do you use them? If not, do you use card sleeves, and if so, which ones? I’ve also read that some people even sleeve the tokens in this game!

So here’s the thing I’d recommend. If you think you might like this game, try a SINGLE CORE SET.

No, you will not be able to fully build out decks with just a single core set. But you will be able to put together a good 2-investigator team to go through the 3-scenario campaign that comes in the core box.

And then you’ll know whether the game got its hooks into you, or not.

I do sleeve my cards, and the player mat I linked here doesn’t include sleeves anymore. Just the mat. Which is still a good deal when you see what FFG is charging for player mats of much less utility.

The sleeves are I think a standard card size – Fantasy Flight’s white sleeves, if that’s helpful.

Once I decided that yes, I pretty much loved this game and what it does and can do, my next purchase was a good dice bag, once that can stand up. I think I spent about $12 on that. It’s got a lovely feel to it, and it can be used to just sit on the table like a cup or also you can hold it closed at the top and shake it up. Like when you draw a tentacle token twice in four pulls. ;)

Along with the dice bag, I bought coin capsules. The best size I think is 26mm. This is the single best upgrade that didn’t involve the game itself that I’ve ever made. Putting the chaos tokens into the capsules and then filling the chaos bag with them gives them a pleasing heft, and a satisfying “clack” as you mix them up. They feel substantial and weighty and you feel like you’re really mixing them up when you shake the bag up.

And from there, do what you like. If you’re really into things, a second core set is probably in your future. And then pick a campaign and go with it. The Dunwich legacy is very straight up traditional Lovecraft. The Path to Carcosa cycle campaign is more cosmic-ish in nature, if you prefer your horror that way, with some new, campaign-specific mechanics. The Forgotten Age is more of an Indiana Jones take on things, and has reviewed quite well, but is also apparently fairly difficult.

I’ve hardly played this for months because it maxes out at four and we almost always have more at game nights. But all this recent activity makes me think I should bring it back out for a bit of solitaire. I think 3-4 player will always be more interesting, but playing solo (though probably with 2-3 investigators, playing all the hands) was still fun the few times I did it.

Two players with four investigators is my sweet spot for this game, really. Four people gets messy and there’s just too much waiting around for your turn; always a problem with this genre of game.

The game’s always felt fairly clearly designed for two investigators, to me. At three, even with two core sets you won’t have enough of certain widely useful cards for everyone, and it feels like you’re increasing the odds against you without as commensurate an improvement in your ability to progress. I dunno.

Thanks for the advice. OK, I’ve ordered just one core set, and I’ll see whether we like it. It arrives Monday. Looking forward to it!

https://arkhamdb.com/

Here is the DB deckbuilding site you will want to use to build your decks, read in-depth card reviews, browse other players decks, learn about card combos, and much more.

These websites are invaluable resources. There is one for nearly every LCG. Netrunner, Lord of the Rings, etc.

Oh, and to be clear, I have little experience playing this game as a multiplayer thing with other actual humans, though my local game store has an LCG night and I’ve gone and played some Arkham one-off scenarios there with others. But I really don’t have much of a comparison point for how well (or not) this works (or doesn’t) with other players.

But honestly, this is one of my favorite single player games – I usually play two investigators, but I may try “true solo” with one character at some point too.